It seems BAFTA loves an underdog, with an evening of surprises at the annual television awards. The Bill, The IT Crowd, Wallander and Skins all beat the heavyweight shows to win awards tonight, although neither of the two main favourites June Brown and Jonathan Ross were victorious at the BAFTA Television awards.
The red carpet was a-buzz with excitement and support for June Brown’s nomination for best actress. Eastenders co-stars past and present showed their support and admiration for the nominated monologue episode, with Patsy Palmer, Lucy Benjamin and Barbara Windsor keeping their fingers crossed for ‘Enders.
In a night filled with surprises though, the award for best actress went instead to Anna Maxwell Martin for her role as a mental health patient in Channel 4’s Poppy Shakespeare.
It certainly seemed that BAFTA loves an underdog, with many of the winners beating heavyweight series and high-rating programmes. Few predicted a win for ITV’s veteran police drama The Bill, which is soon to be reduced from two hours to one hour a week, due to budget cuts. It won the continuing drama award for the first time, beating EastEnders, Casualty and Emmerdale.
Apart from The Bill’s triumph, all other drama awards were scooped by the BBC. Wallander, starring Kenneth Branagh as a Swedish detective, won the drama series award, controversially beating popular shows Doctor Who, Spooks and Shameless.
Channel 4 ruled over in comedy, with Peep Show’s David Mitchell winning comedy performance and The IT Crowd winning situation comedy. The channel won eight awards, including the coveted audience award, which went to the much talked-about teen show Skins. We spoke to two of the show’s young stars Kaya Scodelario and Hannah Murray on the red carpet before the awards, and both were full of excitement and nerves. Skins beat other higher-rated programmes to the award voted for by audiences. Perhaps online and text voting are more teen-friendly!
In the International category, Mad Men, the drama set in a 1960s advertising agency, edged out The Wire and The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.
BBC ruled the roost overall, with a total of eight awards going to BBC channels. Channel 4 won seven Baftas, plus the audience award, to ITV’s five.
The stars were out in force, with some very glamorous outfits being paraded up the sun-drenched red carpet outside the Royal Festival Hall. Soap stars Patsy Palmer and Barbara Windsor were joined by documentary stars Bruce Parry and Ross Kemp, journalist Jon Snow and comedians Alan Carr, Justin Lee Collins, and of course host Graham Norton. Davina McCall was in a bit of a fluster after being introduced to one of the cast members of Baltimore-based drama The Wire. We were there getting the nervous nominee’s reactions, asking them who they would most like to see recognised and what they’ve enjoyed most this year in the wonderful world of telly.
